Mendon Town

Pioneer Life

Mendon the Mother of Towns - Comparative Antiqititjj - Number of Towis once a Part of Mendon - Thc First Hlovemenl for a New Plantation - The Deed from the Indiaiu - Dioifion of Land - Names of Proprietors - The First Map - Incorporation - The Town in 1 675 - The Nipmucks' Attack - Tlie SeUlers' Retiini.

On the 15th day of May, 1867, in a small town iu the southeastern part of Worcester County, ''a vast assemblage," as one of those addressing it justly de- scribed it, were gathered together. Orators, poets, distinguished jurists, clergymen, statesmen and men of military renown were present, or regretfully sent excuses for their absence. The inhabitants of Milford, Blackstone, Uxbridge, Northbridge, Upton and Bellingham, with hundreds from more remote parts of the State and nation, had met to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of what they lovingly called the "Mother Town of Mendon." The distinguished speakers seemed to feel it a high' privilege to recount the story of the ancient town, and found the day far too short for their purpose. Several of them had names borne by six generations of Mendon's inhabitants now passed away, as well as by many of its present citizens, and they felt they were telling the story of their ancestors as they narrated how the Aldrichs, Staples, Holbrooks, Thompsons, Chapins, Tafts and others painfully made their way from the coast to this fertile, hilly region, established homes, church, schools, and laid the foundation for all the abounding life of these busy towns of to-day.

Mendon, next to Lancaster in antiquity among Worcester County towns, was and is, well deserving of noticehistorically. Eighteen of these are at least a hundred years younger than she. The town of Worcester was incorporated sixteen years later than Mendon, and she is more than forty-five years older than any other town in the county, except Lancaster, and sixty-three years older than the county itself.

Her original territory is now held by eight Massachusetts towns, but she still retains the spot first settled on her ancient possessions, and her people believe it one of the most fertile and beautiful of all.

In 1659, eight years before Mendon's incorporation, the records of the General Court of Massachusetts show that the people of Braintree and Weymouth had expressed a desire for " a new plantation ;" " whereupon the Court judgeth it meet to grant them liberty to seek out a place and present their desires, with the names of such persons as will carry out the work, unto the next session of this Court." Accordingly, in 1660, upon a petition by seven of the inhabitants of Braintree, a committee of five was empowered to accept persons for the settlement, which was to be eight miles square, and four commissioners were authorized " to make a valid act there." It was nearly two years later. May 22, 1662, before the commissioners reported their rules and regulations for the " Plantation at Netmocke," with the names of persons then accepted, viz.: thirteen of Braintree and ten of Weymouth. Moses Payne and Peter Brackett had already secured a deed of Netmocke from the Indians and a double allowance of land for themselves. They never settled there, but, after the incorporation, transferred their rights under the deed to the town by a writing dated December 9, 1669.

both by Christian and Indian names, and the land was described as eight miles square, lying about fifteen miles from Medfield, " and is to lye to the south or southward of the Parth to Nipmugg Great Pond and five milles on the other side of that Parth north or northwards." The deed has always been supposed destroyed when the town was burned by the Indians in 1676.

By the committee's rules each settler was to have for " one hundred pounds estate '' thirty acres " to the home lot," ten of meadow, five of swamp and one hundred and five for"greate lott." This was assigned by the committee, but later divisions, some eleven in all, proportioned to the amount of land first held, were made by lot and made up the " Doubling Lot."

Before July 7, 1663, John Moore, George Aldrich, Matthias Puffer, John Woodland, Ferdinando Thayer, Daniel Lovett and John Harber had settled at Nipmugg, Netmocke or Squinshepauge, for all these names written variously by diflferent authors, were now applied to the plantation, probably the last most generally. Before March 24, 1664, John Gurney, Walter Cook, Joseph White, John Thompson, Abraham Staples, Joseph Aldridge, John Jepson and John Rockett had settled, making fifteen families in all. There are no means of knowing what took place from 1664 to 1667. Joshua Fisher's map was filed in April, 1667, in the General Court, a copy of which, with title and " explanation," are printed below.

SURVEY OF THE PLANTATION (1667). The desire of the inhabitants to tliis Honered Courto is that they would .iccept of this Retourne of their Plott of theire Plantation wich is layd according to their Graicte of eight Miles square by Joshua iBaher.

An explanation of this Plott, being the Township of Sqninehapauke ad it WRB hiyd out according to the Grant of the Generall Courte by ma, Joshua ffisher, Aprill 1GG7.

from A to B is bounded by Charlea River, a white oake beinge marked on the south side of Charles River at A, a Black oake on the north side of Charles Ri^ er at B, and a line of marked trees and heapes of etones to C, from C to D a line of marked trees and heapea of stones, to C, from C to D a line of marked trees and heapes of stones, and aoe from D to E and from E to F, a line from F to A of Marked Trees ; And from A to B is one mile Runninge according to the River Eaat and West, from

The incorporation of the town of Mendon followed May 15, 1667. The name undoubtedly was taken from Mendham, the name of an ancient English town, and years after the incorporation the name Mendham was applied to Mendon in military reports and in various records. The Indian titles seem to have been seldom used later than 1667.

The town clerk of the new town, Colonel William Crowne, in the preamble to his records, sets forth the title of the inhabitants as based on the Indian deed as well as on the authority of the " Honoured Generalle Courte," and say.i the court had "adorned " the town "wth severall large Priviledges." It was indeed a goodly land. Meadows, springs, brooks, rivers and noble forests abounded. The Blackstone River, entering its northwest corner, crossed to its southeastern portion, now in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The West River, the Mumford, with many smaller tributaries of the Blackstone, were largely or wholly within its limits, and the Charles crossed its eastern portion. High hills with commanding prospects - Wigwam, Misquoe, Calebs, Magormiscock, Goat Hill and others - with the numerous meadows, upon whose grassy products the early settlers greatly relied, added their charms to the scene two hundred and twenty-one years ago. All was peace and hope. The records of 1667 and years following to 1675 are filled with interesting incidents of the settlers' pioneer life, so soon to be broken up by the Indian's torch and tomahawk.

The minister, Rev. John Rayner, had been secured, the meeting-house and parsonage built, land set off for the use of the ministry and for school purposes, roads had been laid out, some of them ten rods wide, provisions made for exterminating wolves, for establishing the town's boundaries, for compelling observance of the Lord's day, and the performance by each man of his share of the public works, for punishing the refractory, for procuring more meadow land with which, in their view, they were as yet but " meanly provided," and everything needful for securing Christian homes in an orderly. God-fearing community. In 1672 the fifteen families of five years before had become thirty-four, and in the list of proprietors receiving swamp lands at that date are found the namts Hayward, Holbrook, Read, Bartlett, Tiler, Gurney, Juell (Jewell), Sprague and Peck. A few others came before 1675, but several best-known in the later history of the town not much, if any, earlier than 1680, among them, Josiah Chapin and the brothers Robert and Matthew Taft.

or five persons were slain. Later the Indians killed Matthias Puffer's wife and child, possibly others. Hostilities had been dreaded by the colonial authorities for some days preceding and scouting-parties ordered out. Mendon was located in the midst of the country of the Nipmuck Indians, and from the beginning had taken special precautions to secure friendly relations with them.

Thelaborsof theapostleEliothadbeen untiring, and bands of praying Indians had been organized at Wacantuck (now Uxbridge), Hassanamisco (Grafton) and elsewhere. One indication of Eliot's influence is probably seen in the Indians' signatures to the Mendon deed by such names as William, John and Jacob, to which signatures, indeed, the Eliots, senior and junior, are witnesses.

In 1668 the Nipmucks in the vicinity of Mendon and Marlborough had executed a formal submission in writing to the government of the colony, in which is found a solemn promise to obey God and do Christian duty. After the slaughter in July, the settlers exerted themselves to secure the removal of the Grafton Indians, with their weapons and supplies, to Mendon. The effort failed. The records show colonial soldiers attacking the Nipmucks at Grafton, in November, 1675. The Indians soon after abandoned Grafton, or Hassanamisco, and, doubtless with the Nipmucks generally, aided King Philip and the Narragansetts against the English. Immediately after the first attack, of which Cotton Mather is quoted as saying, '" Blood was never shed in Massachusetts colony in a way of hostility before this day," many Mendon settlers fled. By November, we are told in military reports, those remaining had been "drawn into two houses." A fortified garrison had been established, from which raids upon the Indians were made. The Colonial Council, November 2, 1675, ordered " that the people of Mendon should not remove from the place without leave, and that those who had done so should immediately return ; " but neither the presence of soldiers, nor the promises, orders nor threats of colonial authority, proved sufficient to overcome the dread of the Indians, and, probably before Christmas, 1675, the town was completely abandoned. During that winter the enemy burned all the buildings. The town records, though all preserved, so far as we know, make no mention of the war, but it is evident, from records of births, that soon after King Philip's death, in August, 1676, some of the fugitives returned, probably not, however, till the Nipmucks had at Boston again submitted formally to the English, and by their own hands, under colonial authority, executed Mattoonas, the Nipmuck leader of the July attack. We know that at least twenty out of the thirty-eight escaping families had returned to Mendon at the beginning of 1680.

Chapter Lv Territorial And Political Changes

Tilt ToKn's Poverty After the War - Claimi of Rhode Inland Territory - The ^* North Purchaae^^ ^Annex4Uion of " The Farms ^^ - Towns Claiming to be " Children of Mendon " - Mendan to-day.

For several years after 1680, Mendon was considered as a frontier town, and its poverty, even in comparison with other Massachusetts towns of the time, was notorious. The proprietors of nearly half iis lands never returned after the war, and delayed or refused payment of taxes levied on their property. Repeated petitions were sent to the General Court asking for compulsory action against these absent owners, and for relief from colony taxes. Most of the petitions were granted. In spite of this poverty, within ten years from the close of the war about fifty families had settled in Mendon, and began to feel crowded and seek additional territory. The southern boundary was not well defined, and was later a subject of much controversy, which continued till 1725. The second map, made by Sergeant Ellis in 1683, and numerous records, show that Mendon claimed much of what was finally yielded to Rhode Island, including the " Falls," now in Woonsocket, and what is known as ''The Branch." In 1692 about three square miles lying on the northern boundary, now in Milford, and still known as the " North Purchase," were bought from the Indians. In 1685 Edward Rawson, secretary of the colony, had become owner of about two thousand acres, now wholly or partly in Bellingham. He held title by deed from the Indians as well as a grant from the colony. Till 1710 he escaped taxation by town or county, paying tribute to the colonial treasury only, but in that year the Farm, as the tract was then called, was annexed to Mendon.

In 1719 thirteen families occupying this farm, or " The Farms," four dwelling on other land in Mendon, and twenty-three families of Dedhara, asked the General Court for incorporation as a town. Their petition was granted, November 27, 1719, against the protest of Mendon, however, and Bellingham became a town.

As early as 1720 the settlers in Waentuck, or Wacantuck (now Uxbridge), agitated the question of separation. Their efforts were renewed in 1722, voted on and rejected in 1726, but Uxbridge was nevertheless incorporated in 1727, taking about four miles in width from the western portion of Mendon.

Upton, at its incorporation in February, 1735, took a small part of the remaining territory and the same year the inhabitants of what is now Milford and Hopedale sought separate town existence. All these attempts were resisted by dwellers in the original settlement, and in the last case successfully for about forty-five years, or till April 11, 1780, when Milford's existence as a town, by full agreement of all parties interested, began. She had formed a separate parish precinct in Mendon, known as the Easterly or Mill River Precinct for thirty-nine years.

Mendon also stoutly opposed her separation from Suffolk and assignment to Worcester County, which took place February IS, 1730. As late as 1734 she voted a petition to the court to be joined with Dedham in a new county, then in 1798 in favor of dividing Worcester County. It may be here noted that Mendon, duringthe first four years of town existence, was a part of Middlesex County. In 1671 she was decreed, evidently in harmony with her own wishes, "to be and belong to ye county of Suffolk."

After the incorporation of Milford no serious attempt to secure a further division of Mendon is known to have been made till 1816, when ten inhabitants of the South Parish (now Blackstone) petitioned the town, without avail, to vote that that precinct be set off as a town. It had continued in apparent content as a parish in Mendon since 1766, though in 1779 we find record of one feeble movement for division. In 1823, and during the four succeeding years, the South Parish sought for separate existence, appealing in vain to the town and to the Legislature. Again, in 1843, the vexed question arose and was discussed at brief intervals with great bitterness till the division was effected and Blackstone incorporated March 25, 1845. The petitioners therefor numbered seven hundred and sixty-seven, the remonstrants three hundred and fourteen, and they were divided on other than local or usual lines. In fact, strange to say, it appears that very probably a large majority living in what is now Mendon desired division, while divisionists were so unpopular in Blackstone as to be excluded from town office at the first town election. Closing the story of the construction of towns from Mendon's territory, it should be observed that the town of Northbridge was taken from Uxbridge in 1772, and Hopedale from Milford in 1886, and can both claim Mendon as their mother or, perhaps, with more accuracy, their grandmother town. By this course of disintegration, not, however, likely to be extended further, forty thousand acres and more, her original holding, with its substantial additions by annexation, have beeu reduced to eleven thousand three hundred and seventy-five acres.

Mill River alone is the only considerable stream which crosses the Mendon of to-day, but the Charles, as of old, forms a part of its eastern boundary and the lovely " Nipmuck Great Pond " is still retained within its limits, with shores now somewhat famous as a summer resort. Pond Hill remains, also Wigwam Hill in the south and Misquoe in the north, both distinguished for magnificent views. Mendon shares with Blackstone at the south a right in Daniels or Southwick Hill, and with Hopedale on the east it claims jurisdiction over Neck Hill. Muddy Brook flows between the elevation last named and the beau-

The above glimpse of Mendon as it now is must suffice till its manufacturing, military, educational and ecclesiastical history have been outlined.

Chapter Lvi

T\e Firtt Oritt-MiU and Saw-MUl - The Successive Occupants of the Old Griat'Mill 9lte - Contracts leith Milters and Blacksmiths - Torrey antl Warjield Saw-Milts - Factories, Miscellaneous and Modem.

In Mendon's colonial life early efforts were made to utilize its water-power. In the beginning of 1664 the committee conditionally granted to Benjamin Albee twenty acres on the town site and fifty acres near the proposed mill, to encourage him to establish a " come mill " on Mill River, near Hopedale's present town line. It was probably built in 1672, and till then the settlers ground their grain at Wrentham or Medfield, twelve or fifteen miles distant.

Ten years later Josiah Chapin had eighty acres granted him near the village and east of Muddy Brook, for his encouragement to build on that treacherous stream the first saw-mill. April 24, 1668, the town voted to build its fir.-t meeting-house " neere to Joseph White's saw-pit, in his house-lott." There can therefore be little doubt that for the first ten years, and till Chapin's mill was started, all boards were manufactured in the primitive manner of pit-sawing.

In 1684 Matthias Puffer's corn-mill was built on the site of Albee's, destroyed by the Indians. Three years later his son James occupied it; and we can trace an occupation of this place for the same purpose for more than one hundred and seventy-five years, and for more than a hundred years the town appears to huve exercised control over it through conditions under which both Albee and Puffer and their succe.s-iors held their rights. It is not important to name all the millers, but David How, 1724, Lieut. Wm. Shefiield, 1735-70, after him Jeremiah Kelley, 1779, then one Ellis and finally Nathan and Alvin Allen, occupied the place.

The latter mill became a ruin about 1847, and the town claimed a forfeiture in consequence, under the contract of 1662. There was a vote to investigate, but the claims were never pressed in court.

James Bick's contract, made in 1686, somewhat resembled Albee's. He was " to doe the town's smithery work for the next ten years upon reasonable conditions, unless death or disablement hinder,'' otherwise the land granted was to revert or fifteen pounds to be paid. Long wrangling between Bick and the town followed ; he would neither do the work, vacate the premises, nor pay the forfeiture; but finally, in 1695, he left the town, and some years after, 1713, it seems the eminent Quaker, Moses Aldrich, was the town blacksmith.

In 1691 Josiah and Angel Torrey were authorized to build a saw-mill dam upon the town's land, between School Meadow and Rock Meadow, and were granted necessary land therefor, so long as they maintained the mill. A mill on this spot, which is not far from P. W. Taft's residence, and two miles west from the village, was used till within a very few years.

In 1711 Samuel Warfield was granted land near the old saw-mill on "Fall Brook," an uncertain location, but probably on Mill River, in Hopedale, near Spindleville Shop.

There were " Iron-works" (probably a smelling furnace) and a saw-mill at or near "The Falls" (Woonsocket) in 1698, and iron-ore had been found at or near East Blackstone.

A saw-mill and a grist-mill had been started, in 1712, on the Charles River, and one in Uxbridge, on the Mumford, many years prior to the incorporation in 1727.

Samuel Thompson's grist-mill, on the Blackstone, where Millville village now is, was begun about the same time ; as also iron-works and perhaps mills at Whitinsville.

Before 1800, within the present limits of the town, there were two or more establishments for making potash, several small distilleries and some brick-kilns. One of the last-named, near Albeeville, was used within forty or fifty years. All the others were abandoned many years before.

Manuflxcturing, as the term is generally understood and applied, never long flourished here and is now almost extinct. From 1845 to 1878 there were important boot-factories in operation. One Leiand, W. H. Comstock and Dennis Eames each had a factory before 1850. Enos T. Albee and Edward Davenport were not much behind these. After them came J. R. Wheelock & Co., who for a year or two produced in their large shop, then new, some three or four hundred cases of boots weekly.

Albee maintained his business, averaging about sixty cases a week, for twenty years or over, ending in 1870. N. R. & J. A. George began boot manufacturing in the Wheelock shop in 1863, but the partnership was brief. J. A. George continued the business till 1879. Charles H. Albee has within a few years been engaged in making boots and shoes in the building occupied by his father, which is in Albeeville, about two miles southwesterly from the Centre Village, where all the other boot-makers named had their factories. Those factories have one by one been removed or converted to otlier uses, and no boots nor shoes have been made in Mendon for several years. The largest factory built by the Wheelocks was torn down the present year (1888).

George R. Whiting in 187.3 bought the ancient Albee "privilege," erected a new dam and a_ mill near the one first built in 1682, remains of which still exist, and with some interruptions has ever since utilized the property for shoddy-making. His buildings, burnt in 1887, have been replaced by improved ones made of brick.

W. H. Swan has made shoddy on Muddy Brook for about twenty years. He has a steam-engine as well as water-power, and formerly sawed lumber and made boxes - and for a time boats.

Samuel G. Wilcox made boot and .shoe-boxes at the junction of Muddy Brook and Mill River, using water-power from both, for over forty years, and since his death, in 1882, his son. Hamilton C. Wilcox, has carried on the business at the old stand.

All these manufacturing establishments now in operation are near each other in the southeasterly part of the town, and their production is small.

Chapter Lvii Military History

In the French War, 1755-63, Mendon furnished her full quota of soldiers. There were forty-one in one company, serving in 1759 in the expedition to Ticonderoga and Crown Point; many more served during the war, but the town records do not reveal much concerning the popular feeling nor town action on military matters. The lists of soldiers contain many names familiarly known all through the town's history. We only know the people did their part well and loyally, scant though the record may be.

There is much more known of the Revolutionary period. The first mutterings of discontent with British rule found an echo in Mendon. Its inhabitants approved the action of those who were willing to pay the damage done by the mob to Governor Hutchinson's property in 1765, but were eager to pardon the rioters, although later, in general terms, they denounced such riots. They voted, in 1767, to concur with the men of Boston in their famous agreement not to sell or use any article, tea in particular, on which Parliament should lay a tax ; indeed, their records are crowded with patriotic utterances ; nineteen resolutions denouncing British wrongs to the Provinces, and declaring in sounding terms their " Rights and Liberties," " The gift of God Almighty," were discussed and passed March 1, 1773. About a year later three more stirring resolutions were passed, suspending intercourse with Great Britain, and refusing to buy or use her goods while Boston is blockaded, and until a " Restoration of our charter-rights be obtained," and denouncing as " inimical to their country" all persons acting otherwise. A Committee of Correspondence was chosen to confer with similar committees in other towns, and the selectmen were authorized, in their discretion, to add to the town's stock of arms and ammunition. September 28, 1774, Joseph Dorr, Esq., was chosen delegate to the Provincial Congress, to be held in Concord, October 11th.

Dr. William Jennison gave the town a six-pounder field-piece about the same time, and two more, with other arms, were purchased by the town. One-third of the soldiers on the military list were enlisted as minute-men, and made ready to march at a moment's notice.

In common with other towns, Mendon contributed in aid of blockaded Boston and Charlestown, and promptly sent delegates to every convention called to organize colouial strength, or declare or guide colonial sentiment.

In 1775 the town was ready with arms and men. Promptly following the battle of Lexington, one hundred and sixty-two men in four companies were in arms, and one hundred and sixteen men appear to have enlisted for the three months ending August, 1775. Mendon, with Concord and other towns, had been designated as a place of deposit for army supplies.

Till the spring of 1776 every town-meeting since 1667 had been loyally called in His Majesty's name ; but now Mendon's liberty-loving people openly discarded his authority, and met " in the name of the Government and People of the Massachusetts Bay," and thereupon voted " that the town advise and instruct their Representatives to acquaint the General Assembly, that if the Honorable the Continental Congress shall think it for the benefit and safety of the United American Colonies to Declare them independent of Great Britain, said Town will approve the measure and with their lives and fortunes support them therein." The immortal Declaration of Independence passed soon after and appears in full with the town's approval upon its records. Through all the years of the great contest, all testimony goes to show that no community surpassed this in devotion to liberty, influence in the colony or in patriotic service. Men of Mendon fought at Bunker Hill, marched to Canada with Arnold and were at Long Island, Valley Forge, Bennington, Saratoga and Yorktown.

son, Judge Joseph Dorr, Jr., the son of the minister, Thomas Wiswell, Lieutenant Benoni Benson and several others appear to have enjoyed the coofldence of the colonial authorities in a high degree. Judge Dorr was especially prominent, and from his pen came many of the patriotic utterances on the records.

We note some miscellaneous matters apparently worth recording as illuminating somewhat the history of the period. A few years before the Revolution the town had been compelled to receive several of the French neutrals cruelly driven from Nova Scotia in 1755 by English authority represented by General John Winslow, descendant of the Pilgrim Governor. The same British power in 1775 turned its cruelty against Charlestown, and by order of the Provincial Congress, Mendon was " to take thirty of the people of Charlestown," made homeless by the burning of their town. Eleven years before, five of the banished Acadian French were still living in Mendon. If they saw the thirty homeless Charlestown people entering Mendon, and we have no reason to suppose they did not, they must have thought it savored of retribution.

In 1776 seven officers of the Seventy-flrst British Regiment Highlanders, supposed taken prisonei's at sea, were quartered in Mendon. They forwarded many complaints to the Colonial Council of abusive treatment from the inhabitants, especially of language reflecting on the prowess of British soldiers generally and that of the prisoners in particular. There was also complaint of tyrannical treatment in many respects, and the citizens complained on their part of being obliged to keep the officers' servants, and expressed suspicions of the prisoners conspiring with Tories. Captain Colon McKenzie was the chief officer. How long they remained is not known - perhaps till exchanged.

A bitter quarrel arose between Uxbridge and Mendon members of the Third Massachusetts Regiment concerning the election of field officers. It could only be settled by a committee from the Colonial Council and an order on their report for a new election and an assignment of the Uxbridge soldiers, who were from the first in a minority, to another regiment. This was in 1776.

A census, taken January 1,1777, gives Mendon five hundred and seventy-two male inhabitants, sixteen years old and upwards. She had seventy-five soldiers in the field in March, 1778. During the year 1776 twenty-eight had enlisted for three years. In 1779 there is a list of thirty-three nine-months' men in the Rhode Island service, but neither State nor town records enable us to make complete military lists or give the town exact credit lor its labors and losses in the cause of liberty. Tradition has brought down the names of but one or two Tories in the whole town. Some were suspected of disloyalty, and petitions for stringent laws against them went from Mendon, whose Committee of Safety never relaxed in vigilance, if we may trust the records.

Those records also show with what wise adjustments of business the evils of the depreciated currency were met, and the careful attention given to their regular municipal affairs. Throwing aside the old-time local strifes, Mendon voted at last that the East Precinct, Milford, might become a town. The new Constitution of Massachusetts was laboriously and fully discussed, article by article, the voters amending, rejecting or adopting, as if on them alone depended the making of the organic law of the Commonwealth, and, finally, as the clouds of war rolled away, they set themselves resolutely at work to do their part as an important town in the new State of Massachusetts.

No proof is found of any Mendon citizens taking part with Shays in his rebellion, in 1786, though petitions with lists of grievances uncounted went to the General Court. Among the complaints were named the sitting of the General Court in Boston, the want of a circulating medium, the exorbitance of the lawyers' " fee-table," the doings of the Court of Common Pleas, " too many office-holders, and their salaries too large," etc.

But the town, nevertheless, furnished its quota of men, sixty in all, to march against Shays, and seems to have had no thought of resisting the government, imperfect as it was, which had cost so much.

In 1797 fears of a war with France arose. While Milford was plainly of a martial spirit, Mendon appears memorializing Congress against arming ships, and expressing its dread of the horrors of war.

There is nothing to show the town's zeal in the War of 1812, unless it be that it voted seven dollars per month extra pay to such of its militia as should be called into actual service. Six officers and twenty-six enlisted men of Mendon were paid by the United States in 1814 for service in the army. According to " Ballou's History," Milford was earnestly in favor of the war, and furnished many men.

When the great Rebellion broke out this town took its stand promptly, and, with a spirit which never faltered, sent men and expended money most freely to crush out traitors. In 1861, after a preamble declaring loyalty, and their duty and purpose to sustain the government, the voters unanimously passed resolutions appropriating five thousand dollars in aid of the families of volunteers. In 1862, while adopting patriotic resolutions, they voted to pay a bounty of one hundred and fifty dollars to each soldier volunteering, and later they increased it to two hundred dollars. This action was in harmony with their course to the end of the war, and when President Lincoln was assassinated, the town records show the horror of the citizens. The votes and resolutions passed in relation to the Rebellion were generally passed unanimously. Aside from town action, the people called meeting after meeting to encourage enlistments, volunteers were honored, their families aided, and, if a word in defence of the rebels was ventured, the overwhelming popular sentiment in opposition prevented its repetition. In Mendon, from 1861 to 1888, traitors and copperheads have always heen odious, as Tories were to the fathers.

The town's ordinary appropriations were little over five thousand dollars a year, but it paid in bounties over sixteen thousand dollars, of which the town furnished all but about twenty-five hundred dollars, which was raised bw subscription. The State's records show one hundred and fifty-six residents of Mendon who served in the army or navy from 1861 to 1865, and one hundred and thirty-two are credited on her quotas, being sixteen over all calls to which she was required to respond. Nineteen were killed or died in service, namely, - Franklin B. Wilcox, Charles H. Wheelock, Juba F. Pickering, Alanson E. Bathrick, Samuel Hall, John B. Rockwood, Martin S. Howe, George W. Wilcox, David 8. Thurber, Lawrence B. Doggett, William Cosgrove, Albert Cook, Patrick Wallace, Robert Wallace, Samuel Everton, Franklin Freeman, Anthon C. Taft, Benjamin H. Smith and James Burns.

Chapter Lviii

Ministers and Mseting-HoKsee, 1663 to 1818 - The Change to UnUaHanism - The Meeting-Home of 1S20 - Pastors to ISHS - Tlte yorth Congregational Church and Pantora - The Methodists in Mendon - The Quakers.

Like every New England settlement of its time, Mendon was founded on the idea that religious worship and religious life should be established and maintained at every sacrifice. Grants of privileges to establish a plantation or incorporate a town or precinct were made on the express condition that the inhabitants settle and support "a learned Orthodox Minister of good conversation," which, indeed, in every case they promptly did.

Rev. John Rayner was accepted as a settler by the committee ou the Mendon plantation May 22, 1662, and in 1667 is recorded as having an allotment of meadow land. In 1669, in a petition to the General Court, he is named in terms showing plainly that he was the minister then preaching in Mendon.

Mr. Benjamin Eliot, son of the apostle Eliot, received a call in 1668 to settle there, but it was not accepted. Late in 1669 the church appears to have been fully organized and the Rev. Joseph Emerson made the first settled minister of the place.

At the beginning land had been set apart for the ministry and for schools, and when divisions of the common lands were made, the same allotment was made to them as to individual proprietors. Before Mr. Emerson came, the minister's house was advanced towards completion. It evidently, as well as the early meeting-houses, was built by the combined labor and gifts of the settlers. The town voted to build, and the selectmen employed a master workman who supervised the labori* of the workers. Several records concerning the obstinate and sometimes insulting refusal of one Job Tiler to work on Mr. Emerson's house at the summons of the selectmen, their threats to report him to the Colonial magistrates, and his final surrender and giving satisfaction "for that offence" with others, make up a curious comment on the management of an early New England town.

Mr. Emerson fled with his people from the Indians in 1675, and died in Concord June, 1680. He was the ancestor of Ralph Waldo Emerson. His house and the first meetinghouse were burned with the rest. It is supposed his house stood on the Caleb Hayward place. The first meeting-house, which stood near the building now occupied by the Taft Public Library, is described in the quaint language of the time as " the breadth 22 foote square, 12 foote studd, the Ruffe gathered to A 7 foote square w"" A Turrett." It was built under the direction of Deacon Job Hide in 1668.

The first town-meeting after the settlers' return was held January 3, 1680, and at the second, held ten days later, it was voted to build for the minister " A house 26 foot in length 18 foot In bredth, 14 foot between joj'nts a girt house and a gabell end In the Roofe and a Leantowe att one end of the house the breadth of it."

January 17, 1680, Samuel Hayward had agreed with the selectmen to "begine and manige the frame of a meeting-house, 26 feet in length and 24 foot in breadth, a girt house 14 foot between joynts."

October 4, 1680, "the towne Agreed, and it pased by a clere vote, that they would give Mr. Grindall Rawson a call to the work of the ministry for this yere In order to his further settlement; for j£20 in money, his bord and a hors to be kept for his servis." After three years of preaching, he was settltd April 7, 1684, at £55 a year, with house and forty-acre lot.

The third meeting-house, thirty feet square, with sixteen-foot posts, was built 1690, "by subscriptiou," doubtless under town control, at a point not now known. Four years later the old one was sold. None of these meeting-houses had pews, seats being assigned by a committee, of whom the pastor was one. In 1709 the town voted to enlarge the meetinghouse by an addition of ten feet at each end, with changts in the galleries, new floors and seats, and it appears the minister and a few others had pews therein built by themselves. In 1737 " Pew Room " was sold, the elderly men paying most for church matters to have first choice.

preaching in Mendon thirty-five years. He was twelfth son of Secretary Rawson. His body, with that of his widow, who died in 1748, lies in the town's ancient burial-place. In 1744 the town made provision for the memorial stone at his grave. He was a class-mate and friend of Cotton Mather, and renowned in the Colony for his learning. He kn>-w the Indian language well, and preached regularly in different parts of the town week-days as well as on the Sabbath, to Indians and whites with equal fidelity.

Rev. Joseph Dorr was settled in 1716 at a salary of seventy pounds for the first year, and seventy-five pounds after ; " and for settlement or encouragement, the sum of one hundred and sixty pounds, - one hundred pounds in money." He also was a distinguished divine ofgreat discretion, and during the controversies with the East Precinct, which long agitated the town and forced him to self-defence in the town-meetings, he appears to have behaved with great wisdom, and finally to have won general approval. His wife was Mr. Rawson's daughter. His son. Judge Joseph Dorr, Jr., widely esteemed during the Revolution, has been already mentioned. His pastorate continued fifty-two years, till his death, March 9, 1768, and his body lies near that of Mr. Rawson. In 1730 the fourth meeting-house was begun. "Towards the raising," thetown voted to " provide a barrel of Rhum." This house was fifty feet long, forty-five feet wide, twenty-four feet high, and remained till 1816. Controversies about its location lasted for years, and even after its erection. The opponents to the location, finally established near the old burying-ground, even tried to cut down the frame, and a hundred and sixteen years later the marks of their axes on the southwest corner-post were plainly seen. It was seven years before its final completion, and soon afier, in 1741, the East Precinct, doubtless in consequence of differences concerning the new meeting-house, was organized. November 8, 1751, the four pastors, respectively settled in Milford, Upton, Uxbridge and Mendon, united in an association which has ever since continued. Mr. Dorr was long its moderator, and apparently its master-spirit. It gradually enlarged its field of work and membership, and is now called the Mendon Conference, instead of the Mendon Association, as at first. Toward the close of Mr. Dorr's life, Rev. Benjamin Balch preached in Mendon for a few months on account of Mr. Dorr's disability, but before the end of 1768 he was ordained at the South Parish, "Chestnut Hill," where a new meeting-house, still standing, was erected the next year. He was followed in Mendou by Mr. Pennimau, Mr. Messenger and perhaps others.

April 17, 1769, Rev. Joseph Willard was settled. He proved to be an earnest, out-spoken man and a zealous patriot during the war, but difficulties arose between him and his people, and he was dismissed in 1782. Rev. Caleb Alexander was settled from 1786 to

1802. He afterwards became a distinguished writer and teacher in Onondaga, New York. Mr. Alexander disciplined the Mendon Church much more than former pastors, and had many contests in consequence. He died in Onondaga in 1828.

In 1805 Rev. Preserved Smith became pastor over the Mendon First and Third (South) Parishes, and labored till 1812. He had formerly preached in Rowe, Mass., and returned thither, preaching in that place thirty-five years in all. He died 1834 in Warwick, Mass. In his youth he served five campaigns in the Continental Army, and was present at Burgoyne's surrender. As a minister he was popular and influential, with liberal tendencies in his religious thought.

Rev. Simeon Doggett succeeded him in 1814, and in 1818, after much controversy, led a majority of his people to adopt Unitarian views. Mr. Doggett was dismissed in 1837, and died in Raynham in 1852, aged eighty-seven. He was much esteemed as a teacher, and maintained an academy in Mendon many years. In 1820 the First Parish Church, still used as a hou.?e of worship, was built on land given by Seth Hastings, Esq. It was then considered one of the finest in the county.

It is noticeable that since Rev. Joseph Dorr's death, in 1768, out of the very long list of his sue-, cessors, no minister of the parish has died in Mendon except Rev. William H. Kinsley, who died in 1851.

With the diminution of population the attendance on religious worship has steadily diminished, and few now congregate where so many generations have successively assembled ; but the parish, incorporated separate from the town in 1784 and perfected 1792, still exercises its corporate powers and retains its property.

There were many who did not accept the Unitarian views adopted by Mr. Doggett's followers, and in 1828 they organized the " North Congregational Church," adopting in substance the creed and covenant discarded or modified by the First Church. A meetinghouse was built in 1830 on Main Street, and Rev. John M. Perry was ordained 1831. Rev. Thomas Riggs had preached prior to this. Mr. Perry resigned in 1835 to become a missionary, and soon after he and his wife died in Ceylon of cholera. Rev. Thomas Edwards was ordained 1836 and dismissed 1840. Rev. Andrew H. Reed preached from 1841 to 1848, followed for ahout three months by Rev. Dwight. Rev. Charles Chamberlin was pastor from 1848 to 1851, when Methodist pastors were employed till 18.53, followed by Rev. Demis for a brief period, and the last pastor. Rev. E. Deraond, closed his labors October 31, 1858, after about three years of labor. The last two were Congregationalists.

The records of this church and society are very few. It was always feeble. Their meeting-house was sold in 1865 to the Methodis-t Episcopal Society, which many of the North Church members had already joined.

The weakness of the North Church was so apparent in 1851, that the hiring of a Methodist preacher was generally approved by the society, and thereby much support was gained. In 1853 this plan was abandoned and the Methodists forced to leave. They accordingly held their first meeting June 2, 1853, in the town hall, organizing as a society June 9th. Immediate eftbrts were made to raise funds to build a meetinghouse, and land had been bought and foundations laid before 1855. During that year the walls were raised seven feet, but the material was such that during the winter following, it was greatly injured by the weather.

Financial misfortunes to the manufacturing interests of the place followed, resulting in a loss of population and confidence severely felt by this society, which had but from thirty-five to forty members from the first - and in 1859 its creditors brought a suit, settled only by a sale of its property.

From this misfortune recovery was slow, and it was not till 1865 that they were able to buy the old North meeting-house, which was repaired, remodeled and dedicated in 1866. The church and society did not continue to flourish, though preachers were regularly sent for many years, closing in 1879. The pastors in adjoining towns have, however, from time to time for a few weeks, held services in the church, but not since 1886. The list of Methodist preachers is as follows. Rev. C. S. McReading, located in 1851; Rev. G. L. Hanaford, 1852; Rev. John L. Day, 1853; Rev. Wm. Pentecost, 1854; Rev. G. R. Bent, 1856; Rev. J. Emory Round, 1858 ; Rev. VV. A. Clapp, 1860 ; Rev. L. B. Sweetser, 1861 ; Rev. W. M. Ayers, 1862 ; Rev. Augustine "Caldwell, 1866; Rev. J. Mosely Dwight, 1868; Rev. J. W. Coolidge, 1869; Rev. John L. Locke, 1871 ; Rev. Joseph Williams, 1872; Rev. Elisha Brown, 1873 ; Rev. Phineas C. Sloper, 1876 ; Rev. George E. Hill, 1879. There was no pastor for a part of 1862, and none during most of the time between April, 1874, and April, 1876.

Each of the religious societies organized a Sundayschool in connection with its other work, and some have been formed in diflerent school district-*. That of the First Parish is still doing its work, but there has been no other in town for several years.

The Quakers maintained a meeting in Mendon village from 1729, when their house was built, till 1841. It is indeed likely they had meetings some years prior to 1729. The East Blackstone Friends' Meeting- House, at first known as the South Mendon Meeting- House, was built in 1812. If Quakers were ever persecuted in Mendon, of which there are a few traditions of doubtful authenticity, they appear to have been generally well esteemed and their scruples duly regarded. In 1758 thirty-two were exempted from military duty, in which list we find, among other names well known, Aldrichs, BuflTums, Farnums and Southwicks. In 1742 the town voted to grant the Quakers, for the enlargement of their meeting-house yard, a strip of land two rods wide, to be taken from the tenrod road, and there are other instances on record showing similar regard for them. Moses Aldrich, 1690-1761, was one of their noteworthy preachers laboring at home and abroad. He was a descendant of one of the early settlers and lived and died in Mendon. The old meeting-house was sold, taken down and removed in 1850.

Chapter Lix Educationai, History And Closing Remarks

Early Itecords and Tradition Concerning Schools - Notices of the Earliest Teachers and School-Houses - School-Dames - TJte District System - The Jlitjh'Sclmol - Some Noteworthy Ecents in Slendon^g Recent History and its Pi-esent Status.

1G07, July Hit. At A Generall Town Meetinge Grainted then to Coll. William Crowne and to hi8 assigns and the present fliinister there shares of meadow in that w** is called the Kucke Meadow, it they will hould out, and v/^ is beyond Goodman Moore's Lott ; And the Scoole Meadow is Reserved and soe ordered pte for A Scoole when y" Place is ahle to Blayntaine one, as alsoe that pte w*" is to be sutt out for the Oleeb Lott ia to be there, but that pte of Meadow w^*" is for the scuol is Lieft to be agreed on for ye quantity, and then if y* Coll. and Minister's sharesiu the Rock Meadow want is to be made up here or In the North Meado not exceeding 10 Acors.

In 1672 the town voted that a twenty-acre lot, "with all the privileges that other lots of that size have," be laid out near the ministry lot for the school. In 1674 the school-master's home lot was " laid out between John Aldrich's house lot and the ten-rod highway that leads to the mill.'' The fatal Indian attack soon followed, and no record of importance of the year 1675 is found nor any at all after that date till 1680. Even before 1675 there may have been public school instruction, and it is hard to believe, as some do, there was none in Mendon till 1701.

There is, however, no definite record till the following in that year, which shows that March 3, 1701, the town passed a vote directing the selectmen, with Mr. Grindal Rawson, the mini.-ter, " to treat with Dea- con Warfield, upon his refusal, with some other person whom they shall judge suitable, to be a Schoole Master to teach the children of thetowne to read, and for this or any other person's encouragement in said work the town shall pay ten pounds in good current pay at money price, and each person sending children to schoole to pay one penny a week." Thereupon agreement was made with Deacon Warfield and recorded. He was " to keep scool half a yeare and to begin on Munday ye 14th of April next, and for his pains to have five pounds in good current pay at money price, and one penny a week for every child that corns to scoolle." John Warfield, Sr., and John Warfield, Jr., are both named in list of 1685, and at a later date we know they occupied the lot called in 1774 the " Schoolmaster's home lot." The elder Warfield died April 12, 1692.

Deacon Warfield, the schoolmaster of 1701 and the first known as such with certainty, held the position till 1709 at least, and, perhaps, till 1712. January, 1709, the town voted to build its first school-house twenty feet by sixteen and seven feet between joints. It stood near Deacon Warfield's home lot, and most likely where is now the George family cemetery. In March of that year Rev. Grindal Rawson offered to board A Latin scoolle master for four years" if the town "would retain him," upon which the town voted " that the towue accept of sd offer " and "to give twenty pounds a year for that service." Whether one was employed or not is not known.

November 12, 1712, the selectmen met in order to procure a " Scoole Master, the Towne being destitute of one," and met again December 13th, when Robert Husse, from Boston, was hired. He came to Mendon December 12th, and was to teach till May 1, 1713, for which " he shall have," says the record, " five pound paid him for his service and his Diet the s'' time, and to begin" (boarding?) "at John Farnum's and ther continue untill the 28th of January."

William Boyce followed in 1717, at twenty-eight pounds a year. He continued till 1728. In 1721 his contract contained the curious provision that he was to keep a " Reading and Wrighting school during the year, unless the Town should be presented lor want of a Grammar School," when he was to " cease keeping at ye Selectmen's order." ' A year later and doubtless thereafter, the town apparently not having been summoned before the grand jury, he continued teaching at four places alternately, viz. : " At the school-house, over the Mill River, at ye south end of the town, and about the Great River"

1 The Province Acts of 161I2-9J fined towns with fifty householders twenty pounds for failure to employ a niMter to teach reading and writing. Those having one hundred householders were required to employ a " grammar-school master," '* well-instructed in the tongues." lu 1721 undoubtedly the selectmen believed there were in Mendon one hundred householders.

Mr. Grindal Rawson, perhaps the first resident in Mendon to graduate from Harvard College, was engaged for six months after October 24, 1728, for a salary of twenty-two pounds ten shillings. He was the eleventh child of Rev. Grindal Rawson, had recently left college and taught in 1729 and 1730. It is probable he was the first to teach more than reading and writing. He was afterwards minister at East Haddam, Conn., dying there in 1777. His cousin, Capt. William Rawson, an earlier graduate of Harvard, taught the Mendon school in the winter of 1729 -30, at the rate of forty-five pounds per year salary.

Samuel Terry taught a grammar school in 1733. May 15, 1732, "School Dames" were authorized "to keep school in the Outskirts of the Town," and thirty pounds were appropriated for the purpose. These were the first of the long list of women who have adorned and elevated Mendon's public schools.

John Field followed Mr. Terry, teaching from 1735 to 1737 ; salary, forty- five pounds per year. He was succeeded by Capt. William Rawson, 1735 to 1742, at fifty pounds ; but after him Josiah Marshall taught at nineteen pounds a year in bills of the " last emission." The fluctuations of the colonial currency, or bills of credit, make the rates of wages misleading.

By vote of the town, no schoolmaster was hired in 1743; but Mr. Mar,<hall taught again in 1744, and it would appear continuously till the spring of 1747, when the town voted not to employ him, and sold their school-house for fourteen pounds, " old tenor." In the autumn they voted to build a new one, the same size as the first, at the north end of the Training Field. This house stood near the present location of A. W. Gaskill's barn, and was completed in 1749.

In 1749 there was also a vote that the Grammar School should not be kept in the new school -house, and the next year there was a nearly unanimous vote not to have Mr. Foster for their teacher, and to have Mr. Dorr's son, Joseph, and Capt. Eleazer Taft s son, Moses, " Keep school by Spells, as they can agree." The same arrangement in substance continued the next year, but with an added declaration in favor of having Joseph Dorr when possible. Both these teachers were Harvard graduates.

Between 1757 and 1760 the town's control of the schools seems relaxed, and signs of a new system appear. The town left the settlement of school matters, heretofore controlled by direct vote, to the selectmen, and in 1760 we discover the existence of eleven school districts, drawing, and doubtless expending, the money they raised for schools under town authority.

As late as 1751 there were but two school-houses, that in the East Precinct (Milford) having been built in that year. But it is clear that the several districts took complete control of their schools after 1771, perhaps a little earlier. Little is to be learned of their progress from that time to 1790. In 1789 a statute made it the duty of the ministers and selectmen to visit scliools and advise and examine the scliolars. Their authority was not well defined, and though they were doubtless interested and useful, their position was one of honor and dignity rather than of direct responsibility. From forty to one hundred pounds were annually raised for schools, and it is quite probable most of the schools were taught in private dwelling-. In 1789 the town voted to sell the old school-house on the " Training Field," and in 1794 voted to raise six hundred pounds to build a school-house in each district. Later this was reduced to a grant of three hundred pounds, for building and repairing school-houses. This was increased by one hundred and fifty pounds in 1795, and that in turn voted down, but finally, in 1797, six hundred and sixty-six pounds were granted for building and furnishing school-houses, committees meanwhile having been chosen to supervise the work, all of which shows a strong probability that before 1800 each district had a school-house. In 1796 the first School Committee was chosen, but it is not plain that the town did this every year after. It was probably preferable for the most part to have the ministers act. They generally had students fitting for college or studying theology under their tuition from 1700 to 1830, sometimes, as in Mr. Doggett's case, maintaining an academy ; and their approval of students and teachers, too, was much desired. Indeed, after 1789, teachers not college graduates must have it before they could lawfully teach.

From 1800 to 1827 from $600 to $800 was annually raised for schools, and from $1200 to $1800 from 1827 to 1844. The income of proceeds of sales of school lands made prior to 1727 had been applied to the support of schools for a period not now known, but it must have been an insignificant sum. After 1837 the income of $6927.64, received from the United States out of the "surplus revenue," was also thus applied till Blackstone was incorporated, in 1845, when only $2118.19 was left for Mendon, and in 1880 this was used to reduce the town's general indebtedness.

The statute of 1826 introduced the effectual control of public schools by the School Committee. They were first paid in Mendon in 1832, when $10.00 was voted them, " providing they are prompt and regular in visiting the schools." The people clung tenaciously to the district system, and jealously reserved all possible control of the schools to the district or prudential committees down to 1869, when the system was abolished by law. Any fancied assumption of undue control on the part of the town committee was likely to be followed by the election of a new board at the next town-meeting.

The school:!, however, progressed steadily, and from the time of Grindal Rawson's graduation, in 1728, Mendon has sent out students who have won scholarly fame